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Monday, March 9, 2015

I Got a Story to Tell: Narrative Techniques in Hip-Hop and Rap Music Part Two

In the first part of this mini-series, I examined the
narrative landscape of Immortal Technique’s “Dance With the Devil,” a Faustian
tale of greed and violence. Continuing this theme, I want to examine a piece
that is contemporaneous with “Dance With the Devil,” but occupies the opposite
end of the hip-hop success spectrum. Where most outside the underground hip-hop
scene haven’t been acquainted with Immortal Technique’s work, it’s hard to find
someone alive in the U.S. (and indeed, much of the world) who hasn’t at least heard of Eminem. He’s the best-selling
artist of the 2000’s, has won fifteen Grammy Awards, and is a mainstay in current
popular culture. So, as is often is the question with print books, can material
with mass appeal also be literary?

I’ll explore this idea through the third single from
Eminem’s 2000 album The Marshall Mathers
LP, “Stan.” Look at the lyrics HERE. And the audio/video HERE.

The plot of “Stan,”
is less explicitly detailed than “Dance With the Devil,” and lacks a narrator.
Instead, the story arrives in the form of letters between “Slim Shady,”
(Eminem’s alter ego) and a superfan of his, named Stan. This epistolary
structure is reminiscent of classic novels like Dracula and The Color Purple
(among others) and allows for characterization to come in the first person,
directly from Stan and Slim Shady themselves. As with Walker’s The Color Purple, the vernacular of the
narration reveals Stan’s and Slim’s speaking style, as well as gradually
revealing Stan’s character arc. In each subsequent letter, Stan’s narration
grows more aggressive and obsessive, his voice rising and getting more frantic,
showing the gradual deterioration of his mental state. Stan makes frequent
references to other Eminem songs, taking the meanings as literal, though Slim
says he “says that shit just clowning.” Here Eminem shows the way songs, like
other texts, can be misinterpreted—it’s reminiscent of the misinterpreted poem
lines that give The Catcher in the Rye
its title, and added thematic resonance (And really, aren’t Stan’s problems
just Holden Caulfield-y whining gone too far?) The setting is left mostly
obscured, though Stan mentions Denver. There are also sounds in the background
of rain, and Stan mentions “blistering cold” and in the first letter says “back
in autumn,” implying a bleak, winter landscape. Winter, being the traditional season
of death, foreshadows Stan’s eventual demise. By the end of the song, we know
Stan’s fate, but still listen to Slim eventually try to reply, slowly figuring
out who Stan is. This is a clear use of dramatic irony—a frequent staple in
Greek tragedies and highlights the cautionary nature of the tale.